¡Hola familia!
Chacarita stole my creativity, so I have no idea how to
start this email. It's pretty cloudy outside... *ahem*. Yep. (Did you know that
Argentines LOVE to talk about the weather? I thought that was a conversation
killer. Not here. "Qué calor, ¿no?" Argentine: "Huh? Oh, you
Mormons are humans! I guess I'll talk to you.")
So it was a rough first week. We did a lot of walking, and a
lot of talking. And practically nobody wanted anything. I've been contacting
more people on the streets than any other time in the mission, and have been
seeing less people interested. Also our members keep disappearing five minutes
before they're going to accompany us to appointments. But we're hangin' in
there. Elder McRory has a faith that never falls, and is good at making me
laugh off the disappointments so we can keep working.
But the good ol' borrachos like to talk. I think one of the
side effects of alcohol is making you think you have a theological doctorate.
One guy started talking to us, and set up his debate for why the Book of Mormon
wasn't true like this. "Look boys, so there's five continents,
right?..." Um. No. Not even when you count the continents like the
latinos: América, Europa, Asia, África, Oceanía, Antártida. The sweet old lady
who was with us and who has more zeal than anyone I've ever seen tried to
testify to him about the Restoration, and I just kinda laughed and tried to get
her to move on. Remember: we can't convince anyone, only testify so that the
Spirit can do the convincing. A drunkard's never gonna feel the Spirit. The
best you can do is just smile and give 'im a high five.
There's not a lot to talk about from this week, so to be
more positive, I'll talk about what Heavenly Father taught me in my beastly
awesome Personal Study today. I started to study about Patriarchs and learned
some pretty cool stuff in DyC 107:39-58. In the beginning of the world, this
office of the Melchizedek Priesthood was the father of each family. When God
first established His church on the Earth, it was the family of Adam. When the
first apostasy came around, not only did it disrupt the Church, it disrupted
the union of the family. Now let's look at the Restoration of the Church.
Priesthood government is essentially set up to mimic what God set up in a
family: a ward family with the righteous priesthood holders that preside and
bless the family members. I learned and it was confirmed to me that the
ultimate goal of the Church of Jesus Christ is to restore the Eternal Family.
Even though there are many offices in the Priesthood now to help that along,
it's all supposed to supplement the family to bring things back to the way God
wanted it in the first place- happy, united, and centered around the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
I also was pondering about how the family is the basic unit
of the Church. Some might think that means it's the "lowest" unit.
They're dead wrong. If the base is weak, everything else comes crashing down. A
strong family centered on the Gospel of Jesus Christ is always the first
priority in the Kingdom of God, even before all other Priesthood
responsabilities. That's something that the Spirit has been confirming to me
for a long time now, and I'm grateful to have learned. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for
always keeping us as your greatest priority. :)
I love you guys. Thanks for all that you're doing. ¡Hurra
por Israel!
-Élder Goff
P.S. I forgot the SD card thingy. No pictures this week. :/
No comments:
Post a Comment